Summer Vegetable Soup with Pesto

The soup itself is light on flavor-but serve bowls up with a dollup of the pesto on top and you’ll be amazed. You can add any vegetables you like-see what your garden has to offer.

Serves 6Ingredients

Pesto

2 cups fresh basil leaves (freshly packed)

1-2 cloves garlic(1 tsp), crushed

2 Tbsp pine nuts, toasted

1/2 tsp black pepper

5 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp grated Parmesan Cheese

Soup

6 cups vegetable stock

1/2 small yellow onion, peeled and sliced into thin strips

1 small carrot, peeled, cut in half lengthwise and sliced into 1/4-inch

5-6 small new potatoes, skin on, cut in half and sliced into 1/4 inch

1/4 lb button mushrooms, cut into 1/4-inch slices

1/4 cup green beans, tips cut off, then cut on diagonal into pieces

3-4 spears asparagus, cut on diagonal into 1/2-inch pieces

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp black pepper

1 small zucchini, cut in half lengthwise and sliced into 1/4-inch half -circles

1 cup firmly packed spinach leaves (2 oz), cut into thin strips

FOR THE PESTO, place the basil, garlic, pine nuts, salt and pepper in the bowl of a food processor. Puree for 30 seconds and then scrape down the sides. With the machine running, slowly pour in the olive oil and keep pureeing until you have a nice paste-don’t worry if it’s not liquified, you want to see a few small pieces of basil and garlic. Scrape this mixture into a bowl and mix in the Parmesan cheese. Cover and refrigerate.

For the soup, bring the stock to a boil in a covered pot over high heat. Add the onion, carrot, potatoes, mushrooms, green beans, asparagus and salt and pepper-reduce the heat and simmer gently for 7 minutes.